I see with RetroArch on iOS, the “#emulation is illegal” rubbish has clawed its way back into the daylight. Emulators are legal. Yes, many files people load into them may not be legit but that doesn’t make the tech itself illegal any more than it makes e-readers, music players and video players illegal.
Maybe people should concentrate more on encouraging publishers to provide legal routes to play (and buy) old games than spreading rubbish about emulators.
@craiggrannell The whole thing has resonances with “no person is illegal”. Obviously I’m not drawing a direct equivalence, but that some people in migration may enter illegally doesn’t make any person illegal.
Also, I’d LOVE to see some sort of codification of abandonware laws, similar to the right to repair movement.
@chrisphin I very much agree on the last of those. It’s something that gets raised every now and again, but the usual suspects with deep pockets push back.
What irritates me is how many articles on the subject say ROMs are illegal and leave it at that. I’m not blind to most emulation use being legally grey at best and often using files that breach IP laws. But so few outlets even bother to mention that some games have been released as freeware, and elsewhere there are eg legal NES ROMs for sale
@CTD@craiggrannell I do appreciate there are complexities about, for example, rights to characters or game mechanics that may be governed by other laws. It’s not simple, and I believe in artists being able to make a living from their art. But it feels like it could be achievable with enough will and thought.
@chrisphin@craiggrannell the whole LP, cassette, CD migration showed that people will buy things again in new wrapping. I certainly did. I would buy a digital version of some of these games in a flash if they wrapped it with a few extras, such as being able to trade between games. That might be too hard but the emulators are working on it.
@CTD@chrisphin There is nothing stopping rights holders from selling you the right to use old games. They don’t because it’s not a good business model. Emulation is niche. Repackaging in gated fashion is more lucrative. But imagine if 99% of music released since the late 1970s was only available on those copies issued during the years of its original release. That’s gaming today. Something needs to change, but I don’t think it ever will.
@chrisphin@craiggrannell I do understand however that the legal issues in republishing these kinds of games is absolutely fraught. Getting the rights to the music the art and other elements alongside the game can be next to impossible.
@CTD@craiggrannell Which is why a law that says these rights default out in different ways to now is the solution. So that you don’t have to get these rights; they revert to a new more open licence in law. Which sounds like The State Ripping Rights from Hard-working Creators, but that’s just what copyright law does. It’s just that this would need to be over a shorter term and with other caveats.
@craiggrannell It's especially infuriating when people are like that about platforms with healthy homebrew, modern commercial and freeware scenes, because it's the emulators that inspire those to exist in the first place, to a great extent.
@craiggrannell they could just sell (maybe watermarked?) rom files. The polish ebook market is a good example - since all the publishers started offering ebooks in epub/mobi formats without any drms, the revenues exploded and the piracy stayed the same at best
@dinth They could do this, but 99.9% of companies won’t, because it’s not in their interest. Much better to gatekeep everything you own and occasionally let out the odd title or compilation as you see fit, and resell the same few titles again and again.
@craiggrannell it’s so tedious. Keen to try the PSP emulator even though my PSP still works and I have the original UMD discs. Having no easy way to get the stuff off them though I may find the roms elsewhere. Mäster criminal, me.
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